Visual Pollution in Ankara: An Analysis on Advertising Signboards

Abstract

While outdoor advertisements are spreading rapidly in many cities, the billboards placed on highways, streets and urban furniture become dominant in the landscapes of the cities, and facades turn into scaffoldings for ads. Accordingly, the current literature increasingly refers to the hypothesis that advertisements pervading public spaces cause visual pollution in cities by deteriorating the city’s architectural texture and the landscape. This study focuses on the advertising signboards on the building surfaces and examines the extent of the coverage on the building facades for testing these hypotheses. The content analysis on the front faces of buildings along Ankara Aşkabat Street showed that advertising signboards cover one-third of the building facades on average, and this rate reaches up to 74 percent for several cases. Although there is no accepted saturation limit or threshold for visual pollution, by taking this ratio into account, it can be said that advertising signs create visual pollution on Aşkabat Street. This study provides concrete evidence about the visual pollution caused by uncontrolled signboards and aims to contribute to the field by proposing a quantitative method for measuring the issue.

Keywords

• Outdoor Advertising
• Advertising Signboards
• Visual Pollution
• Ankara
• Content Analysis

Ankara’da Görüntü Kirliliği: Reklam Tabelaları Üzerine Bir Analiz

Abstract

Birçok şehirde açıkhava reklamları hızla yaygınlaşırken, otoyollara ve sokaklara yerleştirilen reklam panoları şehirlerin peyzajına hâkim hale gelmekte, bina cepheleri reklam iskelesine dönüşmektedir. Bu bağlamda kamusal alanlara yayılan reklamların, şehrin mimari dokusunu ve çevre görüntüsünü bozarak, görüntü kirliliğine yol açtığı iddiası literatürde daha sıklıkla dile getirilmektedir. Bu çalışmada bahsi geçen iddiaları test etmek amacıyla bina cepheleri incelenerek, reklam tabelalarının bina cephelerini ne oranda kapladığı araştırılmıştır. Bu amaçla çalışma için örnek olarak seçilen Ankara Aşkabat Caddesi boyunca tüm bina cepheleri içerik analizi yöntemi ile incelenmiştir. Yapılan analizlerde reklam tabelalarının bina cephelerinin ortalama olarak üçte birini kapladığı ve bu oranın bazı binalar için yüzde 74’e kadar çıktığı saptanmıştır. Görüntü kirliliği için kabul görmüş belli bir doygunluk sınırı ya da eşik bulunmamakla birlikte, bu oranı dikkate alarak reklam tabelalarının caddede görsel kirlilik yarattığı söylenebilir. Bu çalışma kontrolsüz tabela kullanımı ile oluşan görüntü kirliliği konusunda somut kanıtlar ortaya koymakla beraber konunun ölçümü için niceliksel bir yöntem önererek alana katkı yapmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

• Açıkhava Reklamcılığı
• Reklam Tabelaları
• Görüntü Kirliliği
• Ankara
• İçerik Analizi

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